Has Covid changed life for you?

AGAA4

I used to often go out on trains or buses but after covid I don't enjoy being packed in with other people. I still go out but in my car more now.

I haven't been on a plane since before Covid and have not replaced my passport. I haven't been on buses & trains as frequently as before, so I've not been to London as often either.

My life has changed during/ since COVID.
In one way I have lost out but in another I have gained.
Firstly I have lost a bit of confidence, got older, don’t go out and about so much . RA. Not good and don’t drive anymore.
Secondly have found new close relatives through DNA and sons intensive research. That in a way made me feel better as they are true family. Found out that father and grandfather were other people. So now know I was brought up by non family. I always knew something was wrong.
I also found long lost sister. Great.
It does mean I never knew real father.
Knowing real relatives has been good. A lot of relatives are quite famous. A distant cousin was the judge re Ricky Tomlinson’s trial. Other reasonably famous people as well. It’s been quite a journey. There may be more to come!

Thank you, Greenfinch

What a terrible experience. I am glad you have eventually almost recovered.

It certainly changed mine. I got Covid in July 2021, was put in an induced coma for 10 days, had a bilateral stroke during that time - there were huge errors made with the medication the hospital gave me whilst unconscious, but they blamed Covid for the stroke).

I had quite a road to recovery - I was in hospital for 6 weeks, had to learn to stand, walk, shower, use a pen, cutlery, mobile 'phone, etc. I had physio for 6 weeks at home, eventually took a special driving test (cognitive function test included) I am 90-95% back to how I was, but before all that, I did Zumba 4 times a week, aqua aerobics 4 times a week, and I worked. Life is different now, but I'm lucky to have survived.

We picked up COVID on a short cruise, but did not go down with it until we got home. But looking across a long lifetime of holidays, I can think of a number of holidays that have been spoilt because someone became ill. It seems to go with the territory.

Unfamiliar food, water, infections, plus the side effects that can come with holidays, too much sun and too much drink, all cam spoil a holiday and that was long before COVID appeared in the world. On one short cruise, I spent half the holiday in my cabin suffering from sea-sckness because the weather was rough.

We have been abroad a number of times since COVID, all, with one exception illness free.

I would love to travel abroad but I hear of so many friends who have done so and contracted covid. The latest 4 are all stuck in the sun feeling very weak and missing out on the holiday they had looked forward to . DH has had so many problems since we last went abroad and got it that we have given up thinking about leaving the UK.

I became very depressed during the second lockdown and it now still comes back to haunt me. I really can't look back and find anything good about it, and I can't help that feeling of regret that it took away two of the remaining years of my life and aged me considerably. However I do understand it was a necessity. I feel so sorry for the youngsters, though, whose education and, in many cases, mental health suffered so dreadfully. I'm convinced it was that second lockdown that did the lasting damage - the first one, with lovely weather and that feeling of everybody pulling together in a caring community, I'm sure had many positive effects.

Yes for sure. My disabled husband became virtually housebound. The enforced separation from grandchildren has meant that there's a divide that wasn't there before. I know they would have grown up anyway but it was instant. We don't get out very much at all. No going back for us.

Two groups I belonged to never resumed after covid. I think a lot of social events suitable for pensioners closed. There are other things I could join but it's sad to lose groups where you know people and enjoy going.

Teachers of older children regurarily say they are still seeing the effects of lockdown on mental health. A lot of pensioners are seeing the effect of lockdown on their families, which can impact them.

My DH was terminally ill during lockdown, trying to access care and treatment was a waking nightmare. I managed to avoid catching covid and protected DH by being totally OTT, I cleaned delivered shopping with anti viral/bacterial wipes and left post lying in the box for 24 hours before opening.
Four years on and immediately after my 8th vaccination I got covid 😫

I lost my husband in late 2019 and had hardly grieved when Covid reared its ugly head. I was isolated from family until I bubbled with my daughter and her family but I have diabetes so I limited meeting socially with them. I have had all the jabs and have not had Covid. I am now suffering from delayed grief because Covid avoidance was paramount so took over my every thought at the time. It has hit me like a train and it’s like I lost him recently. Life for me has changed dramatically.

I worry now about going on cruises, remembering those trapped on board at the beginning of Covid, about flying all those germs from the planes air conditioning, the queues etc.
The groups I went to now not begun again, so life has changed but I’m four years older and been creaking with arthritis. Glad to be here though.

Etoile2701

I go out far less often than I used to. My husband has become a hermit and I am becoming that way. I dread outings and never, ever go out in the evenings now. I used to belong to the U3A and went to French speaking groups locally but I gave all that up during Covid and have no desire to go back. We stopped going on holiday apart from short breaks. Gosh - I really sound like a misery!

You sound just like me! I rely on podcasts etc to get me through the day. I was thinking the other day of all the folk concerts I’d love to go to. Mind you, my arthritis is restricting what I do these days anyway, so maybe I would have been like this even without covid.

I go out far less often than I used to. My husband has become a hermit and I am becoming that way. I dread outings and never, ever go out in the evenings now. I used to belong to the U3A and went to French speaking groups locally but I gave all that up during Covid and have no desire to go back. We stopped going on holiday apart from short breaks. Gosh - I really sound like a misery!

Monica thank you for your explanation. I was trying to say that whilst for many, if not most of us on GN, life has changed because we have become less confident, or the groups we went to have closed (one of mine did) and we have aged and therefore became maybe less mobile or less motivated, and our world has shrunk. However for some of us Covid was catastrophic in that some of us lost our husbands, or another member of our close family, or lost a dear lifelong friend, or like heavenlyheath had our partner walk out on us, all because of Covid. We lost our beloved daughter, she didn’t die, she worked as a doctor throughout most of Covid, but her abusive husband persuaded her she’d be better off away from her very supportive family (he’d been trying for the entirety of their ten year marriage but she refused) and now the results for both us and her, and our three grandchildren are catastrophic. There is much else but I can’t write it on a public forum I’m afraid. You would understand if you were fully aware.
So I’m saying that the loss of some confidence, whilst unpleasant, is not catastrophic. I understand loss of confidence because I suffered some of that too, plus the loss of confidence driving, although that’s improving. I also lost my mother towards the end of Covid, not from Covid, and I recognise that loss has also affected my life.

Callistemon21

Germanshepherdsmum

I too am reassured to read that I am not alone. Neither of us has had covid but, especially because I have asthma, I continue to avoid crowded, enclosed spaces. I have certainly lost some of my confidence. My life is quieter but we are both content in the smaller world we now inhabit. Neither of us has any desire to negotiate airports or sit in planes with germ-ridden fellow passengers. Been there, done that, happy with what I now have and grateful for it.

So many places still on my bucket list but I'll have to be content watching celebs on their travels on TV now!

I saw more of the Terracotta Army on the telly than I saw at the actual site in China. Sooooo crowded. The same with the Great Wall, manic.

Couldn't not could!!

heavenlyheath

Definitely after covid my husband aged 73 decided marriage wasn't for him I was post total knee replacement op when he left a note divorce it is. Walked off with 1/2 the money from our house never mind I had been widowed at 34 and I owned 75% of the house.

Oh heavenlyheath, I'm so sorry to read that.
However, by the sounds of it, perhaps you're well rid if he could look after you after a tkr.

Germanshepherdsmum

I too am reassured to read that I am not alone. Neither of us has had covid but, especially because I have asthma, I continue to avoid crowded, enclosed spaces. I have certainly lost some of my confidence. My life is quieter but we are both content in the smaller world we now inhabit. Neither of us has any desire to negotiate airports or sit in planes with germ-ridden fellow passengers. Been there, done that, happy with what I now have and grateful for it.

So many places still on my bucket list but I'll have to be content watching celebs on their travels on TV now!

I live very close to the beach
Oh, lucky you, petra
I miss the coast and the sea.

Yes, our lives have become more limited, although we've been out and I go out to some groups again and have been out for lunch with friends, we have not been away on holiday nor on a plane since then.

DH was very ill during Covid and I've had surgery which has curtailed our lives somewhat.

I do think that motorway traffic has increased a lot and find travel which necessitates motorway driving very offputting now.

Not drastically. I resumed most of my activities as and when we were allowed to, first with church choir: we met on zoom, then together, spread out in church, as there were only six of us, so it was allowed before other bigger choirs. I think it drew us emotionally closer together and that has lasted.
My voluntary work changed to working from home, over the phone, during lockdown, with a Whatsapp group for keeping in touch. Most of us have not gone back into the office. I had to stop when DH was ill, then he died and I haven’t resumed as I did not have the headspace to cope. Now I do, but am probably not going to as I don’t really want to have to relearn all the technical aspects again after a long gap. Not really Covid-related as such, but so many people have left, or changed roles, that the same camaraderie isn’t there any more.
DH was not told to shield, but his combined health conditions meant that, if he had caught Covid, he would probably have died, so he avoided crowded places. We did resume going on holiday but always by car, self-catering, so we did not mix much. I restricted my activities a bit so as not to put him at risk, including not seeing much of the school-age grandchildren , but that no longer applies.
As others have said, life has reached a different stage.

Reading that so many of you either have covid now, know someone that has it or are suffering from long covid has got me even more worried about catching it. My daughter’s friend has just got it for the umpteenth time. I don’t think I’ll be resuming my previous life any time soon. I’m in enough of a mess with decluttering my house; I daren’t get ill!

Has covid changed life for me? Not really.

I had tkr prior and other knee recently, first was harder.

I'm generally as healthy and fit as prior to covid, I do still distance if possible. I'm not one to go out for coffees and meals, no big changes there.

Missing Church was difficult, but we're back.

We still hire help for windows, gardens, some cleaning (in-home cleaners were on hold for covid). We still travel (not during covid except to our holiday home for upkeep - seeing nobody, breaking no rules).

Just older. Our children are older, GC/GGC older.

Definitely not going "Oreo" ... managed to get up and shower at 5pm and am totally flattened. I have a peculiar symptom of numbness round my mouth ... it is really weird. Anyone else had this with covid?